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SGA Report Card: A review of the 51st administration

Justin Tijerina

Former SGA President Charles Haston changed the way that the student body viewed SGA. | File photo/The Cougar

The 51st administration of the Student Government Association has come and gone, and with a new administration under the leadership of President Shaun Smith and Vice President Tanzeem Chowdhury on the horizon, we examined the major initiatives that distinguish President Charles Haston’s administration from the ones before it.

Advising: B+

A huge issue among students, advising was a priority on the REDvolution platform when Haston and Vice President Erica Tat were elected. Bills were passed to ensure that UH’s advisers were held to the highest standards, and new policies were implemented, including mandatory advising sessions every 30 credit hours and surveys sent out to students after every session. SGA did its best, but emphasis on advising was lost throughout the year as other issues arose.

Freshmen housing: A-

Arguably the biggest initiative this administration took on, freshmen housing was pushed to the top of SGA’s docket after state senator and UH alumnus John Whitmire opposed a proposal to have all first-time-in-college freshmen live on campus. SGA urged the University to drop the commuter school label and adopt freshmen housing, providing research that shows on-campus living increases graduation rates and overall GPAs. UH decided to drop the proposal, and SGA dropped it from their docket. But props to SGA for keeping the conversation going, even when disagreements continually tried to derail it.

Transparency with administration: C-

Ongoing conflicts with the administration came to head when SGA passed a No Confidence vote against Administration and Finance Vice President Carl Carlucci and his two deputies, Emily Messa and Esmeralda Valdez, after concerns about the lack of leadership surrounding auxiliary services, parking and transportation, HigherOne, and other services. SGA jumped the gun when it came to presenting the facts and represented the students in the wrong way. While SGA had reasons to disagree with the way A&F was being run, local news stations picked up the story, shedding a negative light on the University and making SGA seem incompetent.

Student’s first mindset: A

SGA has continually advocated for a students-first mindset throughout the year, from tailgating at football games to crusading for the students at Board of Regents meetings. Something Haston has always backed, a students-first mindset is getting more support than ever — new head football coach Tom Herman has looked to SGA to serve as advocates for the initiative.

Overall effectiveness: B

Throughout the school year, SGA hasn’t been afraid to let its point of view be known. Disagreements with UH administration and the vote of No Confidence against Carlucci put SGA in a bad light among some in the UH community. However, that doesn’t erase the fact that they were acting for the students and, in actuality, put SGA’s name in the spotlight – gaining notoriety among the students and giving the student body more awareness of the powers that SGA has. Haston promised change when he first got elected, and change the game he did. While the methods used may not have been the best, SGA did their job: advocate for the rights of the UH students.

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18 Comments

  • Glisette, you’re the only person lazier and more incompetent than Emily Messa. We did our job, but you never did any reporting or investigation into the litany of problems surrounding the stadium, MOU, or A&F. If you bothered to do your job, you’d know we spent 9 months fighting A&F behind closed doors- we hardly jumped the gun. And we clearly articulated our case, the only problem was you decided not to write about it because you were probably doing homework during the Senate meeting.

    • Hey does the end to your presidency mean the end to your hateful, reporter-attacking comments? Because the world would be better for it. These were actually generous grades, and I think you just automatically scroll down past articles to throw huge shade. Will. Not. Miss. That.

      • Calling yourselves “reporters” is pretty generous considering the level of professionalism and the practice of actual journalism it implies, which clearly doesn’t take place at The Cougar. If you all actually investigated the situation and drew those conclusions, I’d be silent. Since you all refused to engage in even the slightest bit of investigative journalism, yet still have the audacity to criticize SGA for a situation you all CHOSE to learn nothing about, even calling us “incompetent”, I can’t hold my tongue.

        • Umm, I’m confused by the “you” references–I’m not on staff… I’m not a student either. #proudalumna

        • If there’s one thing I’m gonna miss about chuckles being president, it’s his ability to make a mountain of any molehill and fly into a rage over the dumbest shit.

          Truly the greatest tragedy of the Shaun Smith administration is going to be how much less entertaining the Cougar’s comments section will be.

          • If I have one regret, its that “Chuckles” was never given the super saiyan treatment with one of his rage modes. I feel like the world was done a disservice.

    • You won’t get far in life attacking anyone and everyone with whom you disagree. Just keep that in mind as you continue on your journey.

    • Another piece of wisdom: You can only burn so many bridges in life before you find yourself with no roads to travel.

      • Oh wise one,
        It’s great that you have all this advice for Charles but what makes you qualified enough to tell him what will or won’t get him far in life? He has plenty of “roads” to choose from and even more supporters. Hope life treats you just as well.

    • Wow, leave it to Charles to take cheap shots against people who can’t publicly defend themselves. You’re so brave.

      • Oh please. The Cougar has written two editorial pieces, including this one, slamming us for doing our job when they aren’t in a position to offer an opinion since they refused to do any research into the litany of allegations we made, and were corroborated by both our Internal Auditor and the Houston Chronicle. The only people that deserve cartoons drawn of them with pitch forks and torches are The Cougar’s editors, not SGA leadership.

  • As the entrenched bureaucrat that I am famous for being, I outlasted you and your meddling regime Charles. With Tilman and Renu having my back did you not learn that I am untouchable young man? Now let me and my crackerjack team get back to bungling more contracts and committing our usual malfeasance.

    Signed,
    Faux Carl Carlucci

  • While I appreciate the comments on the other issues:

    1.) I was the primary overseer of the advising reform and can assure that it did not fall by the wayside. This was the most complex overhaul of any academic service ever led by SGA and we’re still having to push it through the cloggy pipeline of the Division of Academic Affairs.

    2.) “Transparency with administration”? “Incompetence”?! Who were the ones not being transparent or competent? Last time I checked, it was Carlucci and company. That was kinda the whole point, and this had been obvious for many, many months.

    I appreciate editorial coverage of major SGA happenings whether that coverage is favorable or not, and I think this is an interesting format for it. But please get the facts straight before taking a stance.

    • I couldn’t agree more. SGA stood its ground when A&F refused to honor the MOU, eventually persuaded President Khator to revise the language of the MOU to better protect students, and uncovered fraud committed by A&F during the contract process for management of the stadium.

      We emailed hundreds of pages of evidence to The Cougar in November, but did they do anything with it? No. Following their ridiculous editorial and cartoon in February, their editor apologized and admitted they failed to do ANY investigative journalism into the issues. We met for two hours and handed them printed copies of all the documents that we turned over to Internal Audit, and they still didn’t cover it. They didn’t do any real analysis on the Internal Audit report, either.

      I don’t know what they do over at The Cougar, but it certainly isn’t journalism.

  • A “C” for how they delt with Administration? They should get an A++++ for refusing to give up. They did the right and only thing that this administration reacts to… Bad Press.

    Many on campus are very proud of the resolution because it identified and named names of the attitude of some towards not just students but faculty and staff as well.

    Many of us know but don’t have the protection of students to let the general public and the BOR know that those 3 need to be looked at .

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